


Sunrise over the horizon

by Kairin16



Series: The Triton's Throne [3]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 13:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6080808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairin16/pseuds/Kairin16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After his memory come back, Charles must make a choice of whether he is ready to forgive for long forgotten betrayals and reconcile with the person who always loved him more than life itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunrise over the horizon

**Author's Note:**

> Third and final installment to The Line Between the Earth and the Sky. Once again, the whole series is a gift to @rogueinquizitors so I hope you’ll enjoy it darling! I should have probably split this into two parts, but I wanted it to be the trilogy.

The problem with trying to lie to Raven was that Charles was shit at it. They grew up together and Raven has been his only constant companion through the years, no matter what country he ended up in. She went with him to England, and then accompanied him to France for his research before they went back to States and Charles took over the company. She was the one person who he always talked to and always confided in. So where the situation arose when he refused to tell her something it felt so uncomfortable that he had trouble being in the same room with her without blurting out the whole story.

Fortunately for his sanity, Raven decided that since he was alright after his brief dive into the ocean he did not need to be supervised much and she spent most of her time on the beach working on her tan. This gave Charles the time he needed to sort out everything in his head. There was a lot of it too.

There was no way he could pretend his brief trip under the water was a dream anymore. But it did start a reaction of dreams that have been haunting him for a week since. The nightly visions had a misty quality of an old film reel, as if it all wasn’t happening strictly only in Charles’ imagination. There were more images of the great golden metropolis, the towers of the buildings shimmering with pearls that were imbued into the stone and coral they were made of.

More interesting than the city were people inhabiting it. Creatures of all colours and shapes moved around Charles, all of them stopping enough to bow slightly whether they noticed him nearby. Mermaids, that’s what they were called and although it sounded a little ridiculous in his head, Charles wasn’t going to deny the fact before himself. After all, he watched enough animated movies as a child to know what a mermaid looked like. And there was a lot to choose from in these dreams of his.

There were mermaids big as some of the towers, their pale skin shifting into a heavy tail of a whale. Some of the mermaids weren’t bigger than his wrist, curly sea-horse tails bobbing in the water with their movements. Sometimes there was someone accompanying him while he moved, a mermaid with skin dark blue and the most striking red tail with fins so wide and puffy they looked like a hem of a dress. There were rarer times when that tail was interwoven with a dark blue tail resembling a piranha fish, its owners crimson arms pulling the red-tailed mermaid forward. There was something joyous and beautiful in their swimming, as if they hadn’t wanted for anything else to be simply happy. After these, the dreams when the red mermaid accompanied him alone ached somehow.

The last two nights however, the rhythm of the night vision changed. Gone was the peace and calm of the underwater explorations. There was instead chaos and mermaids fighting. There were more shapes then, mermaids thin as skeletons with sunken eyes and hair that glowed at the ends, their teeth sharper than any knives. Mermaids with jellyfish-like tentacles, reaching out and paralyzing their victims before pulling them away. Charles was sure that he was supposed to be afraid, to be disgusted by their deformed bodies, but to his human eyes all of these creatures were fascinating and beautiful.

There was urgency however, in the people accompanying him, hands pulling him away from the spectacle. They were pushing him inside a platinum building, the heavy door closing behind them. Charles struggled, feeling the unfairness of leaving the rest of these magnificent people outside with their attackers who were clearly more prepared for the fight then the citizens of the golden city.

“Planned the coup” “The traitors” “The betrayers” “An organized attack” Came whispers from around Charles as he moved around the circular room looking for his beautiful red-tailed companion. He couldn’t find her and the anxiety was mounting in the depths of his chests as he started to realize that she must have been left outside.

No one paid him much attention anymore, now that they were all safe in that vault so he moved around the walls, looking for any way to slide back outside. Charles didn’t even know her name, but the thought of losing her shot a paralyzing pain through his chest, the kind he’s never felt before. At the last he found a lose partition of the scaly wall in the back of the room and with the help of necklace he was wearing on his neck he pried it loose and dashed through before anyone noticed him. With no time to formulate any plan he moved swiftly towards where he last saw his companion.

His heart stopped beating for a moment when he finally found her. Her partner laid against the stones, bleeding heavily and she was shielding him with her own body, little cuts and burns littering her whole torso. In front of them was a mermaid, more of a shark than human, its short light hair waving on the water as it brought his arm back and thrust the trident it was holding towards the pair. There was nothing Charles remembered before that and the next image.

To call it an image would give it disservice however since it was more of a feeling than anything else. There was pain, the kind he’s never felt before and Raven’s terrified golden eyes looking at him and reaching her hands out to him with a cry. The attacker wrenched the trident back from Charles’ chest with a shout of pained rage and Charles felt an arm slide around him to hold him up. Raven was crying and Azazel was yelling something to her, but Charles was drifting away, Erik’s panicked babbling in his ear.

That day, Charles woke up with most of his memories intact and with anger burning bright in his chest.

“Raven!” He stormed down the dock of the house, pulling the sweater over his head as he went. His sister was lounging on a chair and sipping some water, but she raised her head when hearing her name. She looked at him over the rim of her sunglasses and sighed before pulling the sunhat off her head and fanning herself with it.

“So how about that remembering thing?” She said and sipped on her drink while giving him a wide eyed look. Charles spluttered and took the water away from her, which only resulted in her grinning at him.

“I died!” As he was saying it, the words stuttered in his throat and instead of outraged scream it came out more of a croak at the end, the reality of the situation hitting him in the chest as the last vestige of the memory-dream drifted away. “Erik killed me.” He said more quietly and plopped down on the sand near Raven’s chair.

Raven shifted in her chair and pushed her fingers into his hair, her soft touch pushing away the panic attack that was building in his lungs. He took a moment to compose himself, leaning against her and taking deep breaths.

“What happened?” Charles laid his head tiredly against Raven’s leg and looked up at her pleadingly. “Tell me what happened, I don’t- Everything’s still unclear. Why- Why did Erik attack the city? Why am I alive?”

“You’re asking for a long story.” Raven sighed and tipped her face up to the sun.

“Can you give me a summary?” Charles’ voice broke and he cleared his throat before sniffling. His eyes were itching for some reason and he gripped the edge of his sweater to center himself. Erik was his friend, his betrothed, and he was the figure that attacked his little sister, that in the end killed him too.

“I don’t know how much you remember, Charles.” Raven sounded as tired as Charles felt, but she continued after a pause. “There was some machinations in the senate that would push some pretty nasty legislations through. You were trying to stop them, debating in the senate almost every day.”

“Shaw.” Charles choked on a name when the image hit him. “He wanted the puratization of the society.”

“Yeah. Erik would be banished to the deep waters, together with many of the less ‘valued’ species.” Raven spun around on the chair and plucked her water from him to sip on it again. “He thought your talks would fail and that the upraising was the only option.”

“He wasn’t wrong.” Charles said after a moment of thoughtful silence, the hopelessness he felt when addressing the senate against the Shaw as he could see his arguments falling on deaf ears, the rich and the pure-blooded nobles liking the idea of the clean society too much to let it go when it was dangled in front of them. “But the attack like that? That wasn’t right either.” Chares sighed and plopped down on his back on the sand.

“Yeah, he realized it by the time it was already too late. He almost killed me and Azazel both just to get the information of where Shaw was hiding.” Raven snorted, an ugly, joyless sound.

“The safe house.” Charles murmured, remembering the platinum building where all the mermaids wearing jewelry were taken when the attack started. Raven huffed and nudged him with her toe until he looked at her.

“I’m still impressed that you escaped from the place that was supposed to be safer than the jail block.” Charles shrugged and Raven shook her head. She pushed her hair behind her ear and sighed heavily. “Erik made a deal with Emma.”

That made Charles sit up, more alarmed than he was when he learn that he died and then got better. Emma Frost was a being older than any of the creatures living in the ocean, handling power rivalling that of the Neron himself. Legends said that she used to be the Queen of all Oceans, others than she was a priestess from forgotten land Atlantis. Whatever she was, she served only herself and her interests. If Erik made a deal with the ethereal woman it did not come free of charge.

“What-?” Charles said, the rest of the words stuck in his throat.

“She rules the city now.” Raven shrugged. “To be honest, she’s doing a better job of it than the senate. Yeah, she’s a selfish bitch but she knows that if she wants to have everything she wishes for from the people, she’s got to make sure that they have everything they need, you know?” Charles did not know and he hoped that his face conveyed just as much. “She was the one who saved you.”

“By making me human?” Charles couldn’t help but sound a little disbelieving. If there was one thing all the creatures of the ocean had in common it was the distrust of the human race, not unfounded to boot.

“That was to torment Erik.” Raven grinned and shrugged. “She might have given in to his begging, but she made sure he knew it was all his fault and he needs to serve his penance.”

“By being away from me? She couldn’t come up with a better punishment?”

“Charles, there is no better punishment for Erik.”

There was nothing Charles could say to that.

 

It would be an understatement to say that Charles was a little lost. The memories were still coming back to him, overlapping with the ones that he made as a human and making him very confused. He didn’t understand what he was supposed to do now that he remembered. He didn’t understand why Raven was with him. He didn’t understand why was she alone, seeing as Azazel and she were almost attached at the hip. He didn’t want to consider that his sister’s partner might be dead by the hand of his own fiancé.

At least the last mystery came clear when the second day after his revelation, came a knock at the door and the lawyer from the legal department at the Xavier Company swept into the house. It took Charles an embarrassingly long time of fifteen minutes to realize that he was looking at Azazel himself.

“You didn’t think I’d let myself be stuck on ground without him, did you?” Raven laughed at him and the “you idiot” at the end of her sentence could just as well be said for the fact that everyone heard it loud and clear.

For the most part he was given space to think and decide things on his own. He spent most of that given time looking blankly into distance and trying to remember exactly what did Erik said to him back when he kidnapped Charles from the boat. There was an uncomfortable feeling in his chest that said that for some reason Erik blamed him for what happened, which was utterly preposterous.

“Do you think it possible Erik’s blaming me for leaving him alone?” Charles asked Raven on the morning of the fourth day AR (After Revelation), playing with the eggs on his plate. Raven shared an uncomfortable look with Azazel and then mumbled “Maybe.” before shoving as much bacon in her mouth as she could. Charles took it to mean that Erik definitely blamed him.

As much as he was starting to miss his underwater home, something was stopping him from even coming close to the beach. After a week passed, he realized it was spite. Charles wasn’t going to stand being blamed for dying or for protecting his sister and he would decline Erik what the man wanted the most as a punishment for even thinking it. And it was clear that what Erik wanted the most was Charles.

Space was all well and good, but he could see that Raven and Azazel were getting nervous. Charles himself felt like he couldn’t spend the rest of his life in this limbo, he was either going to try to go back and hope he wasn’t going to die when he did, or he was staying and continuing his human life. The latter didn’t held much appeal, but there were things he had to straighten out before committing to coming back.

So that’s why the start of the third week saw the three of them on Charles’ boat, moving out on the waters. The fishermen working at the pier made some noises about the accident, but it was easy to not listen to their worried when Charles knew what really happened. He couldn’t exactly explain that a mermaid caused a storm and pulled him into the water though, so he just waved away their concerns and joked that if anything happened, he wasn’t going alone this time. Old men looked at Raven and Azazel with their dark skin and their equipment and made much less noise.

The waves started crashing against the boat the moment they cleared the port. By the time Raven killed the engine on the open ocean and away from any prying eyes, the weather got bad enough to rock the boat rather strongly. Charles shed his shirt and kicked away his shoes before climbing down the ladder on the side to splash his legs in the water. Immediately, the water calmed down and a fin broke the surface nearby.

“Charles.” A blond head bopped out of the water, not a meter away from where Charles was dangling from the boat’s side. Erik grinned, his sharpened teeth making him look more out of place than his tail would.

“Erik.” Charles nodded and waited until Erik swam closer to kick the man in the chest with the heel of his leg. The sheer surprise made the mermaid back away with a huff of pain and Erik glared at him.

“How happy am I to see you, beloved.” Words dripped with sarcasm, but Charles bet on their previous relationship that they were at least partially true.

“You killed me, you fucking asshole, and then made me human. What gives you an idea that I’d be happy to see you.” Charles was shaking enough that it was hard to hold on to the ladder and with a huff he climbed it back to the deck. Erik made a wounded voice and tried to tug Charles back down, but he was too slow.

“You left me!” Erik hit his hands on the side of the boat, rocking it slightly and Charles hissed in displeasure. He regained his balance and leant over the rail to throw his sandal at Erik’s head.

“I didn’t have much choice, did I?” The second sandal shared the fate of the first and Erik was holding his hands in clear view, away from the boat. “After you killed me.”

As if repeating the words was some sort of a magic spell, all the mounting anger escaped from Erik and he bobbed in the water, looking up with his face full of pain Charles could vaguely remember hearing after the trident pierced his body.

“I didn’t mean to.” The words were quiet, but they weren’t exactly what Charles was waiting for. Out of footwear, he gripped the railing tighter and glared down at Erik.

“But you meant to kill my sister?” The question cut through the air and it seemed even the air went silent. The sea became uneasy again and a lightning struck nearby rocks, wind picking up around them. “I would have never forgive you if something happened to her.” If it was possible, Erik looked even more heartbroken at that, looking left to where Raven was standing with Azazel’s arm around her waist.

“I’m sorry! I had no choice!” He screamed and reached out his arms to Charles with longing set in his face. “Charles, please!” He had to move away as the lightning stuck the place he was swimming at.

Raven took hold of Charles’ wrist and was whispering soothing words into his ear, her every breath a reminder of what almost happened. Her touch however proved how alive they both were and Charles closed his eyes and breathed deeply, the sea calming down with him. The moment he felt balanced again, he asked Raven to turn around back to the port. Erik yelled out pleadingly to him again.

“You had every choice.” Charles leant over the rail and squeezed the reaching hand shortly before straightening. “You chose wrong and then I was punished for it.”

He could still hear Erik’s anguished cries as the boat moved back towards the human world. In the end, the decision was easy – Charles already had Raven here and in the water only betrayal and disappointed waited for him.

 

The very next day Charles realized that maybe he should have talked this “have been killed by my most beloved person” thing with someone before facing Erik. It was all good and nice that he made a decision, even though it wasn’t the one Raven or Azazel preferred, but maybe he could have thought it all through a little more. While not being angry enough to cause a storm preferably.

Charles didn’t regret what he said to Erik per se, but just the glimpse of the man while being fully conscious have been enough to remind him how much he loved that pointy toothed asshole, bad decisions and all. It was hard to accept that he was going to end up missing Erik for decades again. He could of course just go back and pretend everything was okay, but he was still angry, and too stubborn to go back on his decision like that. Looking back at both of his lifetimes, stubbornness might be one of his bigger flaws. Raven called it pigheadedness, but that just sounded too bad.

There was a week left of his holiday time and Charles half-heartedly thought about working from home from now on, not moving back to New York and flying only when he needed. Ocean calmed him, made him feel at home, even if he wasn’t currently living in it. The ports in NYC always felt kind of dirty and dead to him.

It’s possible that Charles would spend all seven days moping around the house and trying not to think about Erik. Second day after the meeting however, just as Charles was gathering his things to move to the bedroom a knock on the patio door came. Startled, Charles dropped his book and picked it up with a curse before settling it on the table. Frowning and a little wary he walked briskly to the door and opened it slightly to see whether there was anyone there.

Outside, naked and drenched, stood Erik. Stood, being the key word, since instead of his beautiful silver tail there was a pair of strong legs. He was shivering, from the cold wind outside or from the shock, it was unclear. Charles gasped and pulled the man inside, ushering him to the couch and draping a blanket over his shoulders. He didn’t really notice that his hands were shaking until they were stilled, encompassed in Erik’s long fingered grip.

“Erik.” Charles said, choked up. “Erik, what are you doing here?”

But no answer was forthcoming. Erik shook his head and kissed a hand to Charles’ hand before pressing his cheek there and looking up with pained eyes.

“What-?” Charles sucked in a breath and laughed roughly as he remembered the tale of a mermaid who exchanged her tail and voice for a chance to be with the man she loved. It was after all just the kind of humour Emma would appreciate. Charles shook his head and pressed his nose into Erik’s dump curls, holding his hands tightly. “You are such an idiot.”

Erik made a small noise, neither agreeing or disagreeing before tipping his face enough that he could brush a kiss over Charles’ lips. Not caring about wetting his clothes, Charles climbed into Erik’s lap and held him tightly, both of them shaking.

In the morning, Raven would found them on the couch, so tightly pressed together that they could be one being. In the morning, the anger would feel clearer again and the forgiveness wouldn’t be as easy. There would have to be plan about what to do from now on. But for that very night, Charles held and was held in return and nothing else mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me at tumblr! I go as lifesmarvels or if you're only interested in the writing part seedofthought.


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